The invention relates to an electrical device having a printed circuit board carrying an electronic circuit and at least one power component to be cooled, particularly a switching or control unit for a motor vehicle. In these known devices, power components which heat up intensely are mounted on cooling elements which are fixed on a printed circuit board or on a housing on which the printed circuit board is secured. These cooling elements consist of special cooling profiles by which the power components are spaced from the printed circuit board or project from it. These cooling elements have the disadvantage that they consist of profiles having a complicated structure, and that the process of assembling the device with the profiles can be automated only with great difficulty. Due to the design of the cooling elements and the associated method of mounting the power components, these electrical devices have to be comparatively large, thus taking up a considerable amount of installation space.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,165, an electrical device is described in which the electronic components are arranged on a printed circuit board which carries an electronic circuit. This is made from a flexible material and located on a plate of good thermal conductivity. This has the disadvantage that heat from the electronic components must be dissipated through the printed circuit board to the heat conductive plate. In addition, the (conventional) method of attaching electronic components in a wired structure can be achieved only with considerable effort, since additional insulating provisions vis-a-vis the heat conductive plate are required when the connecting wires or connection electrodes are routed through soldering apertures of the printed circuit board.